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I stare at the photograph and realize that this is what I need to conduct the séance. The love in Sid’s face is so evident—it would attract his ghost.
I point at the image. “Can I take this? I promise I’ll bring it back to you. I’d like to show my…ah…husbandwhen he gets back from his walk.”
“I suppose.” Helena looks at me oddly, but she slips the photograph from its protective slip and hands it to me. “Mind you be careful not to crease it.”
“I’ll be careful. I promise.”
I shove the photograph into my pocket, my heart racing. We have everything we need to conduct the séance and banish theghost, so I can get the fuck away from this creepy hotel and the Bellua brothers.
I endureanother hour of Helena flipping through her scrapbook and telling me the dirty secrets of all her so-called friends over the years. By the time I extract myself, I’m certain that Helena herself is going to get her ass haunted if she’s not careful.
I hope Brooks isn’t in our room. I could use some time to talk to Becka and prep for the séance, and I prefer to do that without his hot but annoying ass looming over me.
As the doors to the elevator close behind me, I reach into my pocket and feel the edges of the photograph. I’m about to pull it out when a thick arm thrusts between the doors, holding them open.
Jackson and Orion step on.
15
FIFTEEN: LILY
My heart leaps into my throat. I try to speak, but I find it impossible when I’m confronted by the two of them in the elevator where I slept with Levi only a few hours before.
Their handsome faces have consumed my dreams for the past five years. Hell, longer than that, though you’ll have to pluck my teeth out to get me to admit it.
And now, confronted by the knowledge that they didn’t know the truth about me…
Ding. The elevator doors slide shut.
No escape.
All the air I breathe belongs to them.
The metal box begins its slow ascent.
Jackson punches the emergency stop. The lights flicker, and an alarm buzzes.
“Daisy,” Jackson growls, his eyes feral.
His whole body is rigid, those strong shoulders he developed playing football tense beneath his tight black T-shirt. I swallow again, not sure if this churning in my gut is terror or desire. Is it possible to feel both?
Damaged is my middle name, apparently.
Jackson’s hands ball into fists. He looks like he’s going to rip the walls apart with his bare hands.
Heknows.
Unexpected warmth pools inside me. This…this is what I always wanted. All my life, the Bellua brothers have sprung to my rescue, until that night. If I had been able to fall into Orion’s arms and see Jackson go all protective caveman on me, then maybe…
Maybe things wouldn’t have turned out the way they did.
But I can’t change the past any more than they can. I had to survive what happened to my parents on my own. Now they have to survive the fallout of that.
I turn to Orion and take in his guilty expression, the protective hand on his brother’s shoulder. “You told him?”
Orion nods.
I hold up my hand and take a step toward them, not certain what I’m doing, but unable to stop myself. We’re two opposing magnets, drawn together by forces greater than ourselves.
